Concrete batching plants must adhere to strict statutory requirements regarding the control of environmental conditions. One area that requires particular attention is the loading of mixture ingredients, for use in making concrete, into an agitator.
The mixture ingredients of concrete typically include aggregate, such as sand and gravel, cement and water. Each ingredient is separately stored and delivered to a gob hopper, which feeds the mixture into the loading inlet of an agitator. The loading of the agitator occurs in a loading bay, which is enclosed on three sides, such that the agitator is reversed into the bay. The enclosed loading bay is designed to reduce the amount of dust emission into the surrounding environment. When loading is finished, the agitator truck drives out to allow another agitator to reverse in. As the loading bay is enclosed on three sides, any material or water spilt during the loading process is contained within the loading bay, to be cleaned out periodically.
The agitator loading system in current concrete batching plants is slow, resulting in slow batching times as well as traffic management and agitator maneuverability concerns. Dust emission out of the open end of the loading bay is a problem, as is noise emission. There is a large amount of spillage and waste of the ingredients and water, thus the loading bay needs to be constantly cleaned.
It would be desirable to provide an agitator delivery system that alleviates or overcomes one or more problems associated with known systems.